Having been shamed in the eyes of the entire nation after private TV channels telecasted three ministers from the Sadananda Gowda cabinet watching porn in the assembly, the state government has now decided to take revenge.
The government is mulling of barring private TV channels from covering the proceedings of legislative assembly and council.
A meeting in this regard, chaired by council chairman DH Shankaramurthy and assembly speaker KG Bopaiah, was held on Tuesday. The meeting decided to set up a separate channel, on the lines of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV in Parliament, to telecast the proceedings of the state legislature.
All other channels would be allowed to source the visual footage of the legislature proceedings from the proposed TV channel.
Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda, who also participated in the meeting, defended the decision saying it was an old proposal and that the state was just following the model adopted by Parliament.
He denied reports that the new proposal was being pushed to keep away private channels in the light of three of its ministers losing their ministership due to the impact of porn-gate scandal. “It has no connection with the porn-gate,” said Gowda.
“It was an old proposal and a report on setting up an exclusive TV channel for covering the legislature session was submitted few years ago by a committee headed by A Ramdas. We are only following the model adopted by our Parliament.”
The new proposal would bring more discipline and decorum into the proceedings of the legislature session, he added.
The council chairman and assembly speaker would soon visit Parliament to study the system installed there for covering the session proceedings.
However, the budget session of the state legislature, to be held in March, would be open for all the channels.
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